Celtics 115, Heat 107: If you want, go ahead and dismiss this as “just one of those games” where Boston was hot — they shot nearly 61 percent on the night as a team. Those random nights happen in an NBA season. But when you combine this win with the Celtics mopping the floor with the Heat nine days before, you have to wonder if the Celtics have to be mentioned as contenders as well.

Miami played fairly well in this one, but it wasn’t enough. In a battle of defensive teams there was a whole lot of offense and the Celtics had more of it — 27 points from Paul Pierce, 24 from Kevin Garnett. Boston knocked down its jumpers — they hit 61.5 percent from 10 feet out to the arc and were 9-of-14 from three. Even Rajon Rondo was knocking down midrange jumpers consistently. Boston had fantastic ball movement. Boston had the better and more timely runs, including a 15-4 one in the fourth quarter that gave them a comfortable lead they would not relinquish.

You can argue that kind of offensive performance is not something Boston can sustain. Maybe not. But they have the league’s best defense and they have now beaten the Heat twice in the last 10 days. Convincingly. There may be a third team in the East we need to talk about as a contender now.

Wizards 93, Magic 85: Dwight Howard was out again and Orlando was terrible on offense again, shooting just 37 percent as a team. The Magic shot 20.8 percent in the second quarter and scored 12 points. Meanwhile Kevin Seraphin dropped 24 for Washington with no Howard in his way, and Jordan Crawford continued to play well and scored 17. This loss shows you just how bad Orlando is right now.

Cavaliers 103, Bobcats 90: Charlotte has been blown out by the Wizards and Cavaliers this week. It’s not that they are trying to tank, they are just that bad. The Bobcats need one more win this season to avoid finishing the year with the worst winning percentage in league history, and you begin to wonder if they can do that. For the Cavs, Lester Hudson keeps on scoring, he had 25.

Mavericks 110, Kings 100: Dirk Nowitzki was off (4-of-14 shooting) but Dallas responded with a balanced attack that Sacramento could not match. No Mavericks player had more than 15 points but six scored in double figures and even Yi Jianlian came in off the bench and scored 8. DeMarcus Cousins had 25 points, 18 rebounds to lead the Kings.

Sixers 107, Nets 88: Philly moved the struggling Spencer Hawes to the bench and started Nikola Vucevic at the five… but come on, that was not the difference here. The reason the Sixers found a groove and pulled away in the second half for an easy win is this is the Nets. The Sixers looked like their early season selves with a balanced attack — five guys with at least 13 points — and good defense that held the Nets to 39 percent shooting. The question is can Philly build on this kind of win?

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was in the building for this one. He must be proud.

Tom Benson, the now 90-year-old owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints, a few years back changed around the succession of control of the team after his passing — his wife Gayle will take control. Rita Benson LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter and former handpicked successor, sued saying Benson had been manipulated. After meeting privately with Benson, a judge ruled that while Benson suffered some “cognitive impairment” he was capable of making his own decisions and that Gayle remained the successor.

Benson has been sued multiple times since then, including by former Saints employee Rodney Henry, and the then-89-year-old Benson was deposed in that case last year.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“Who is this?” Williams asked.

“It’s Rodney and a basketball player,” Benson said. “Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he’s a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no.”

When asked “is it Anthony Davis,” Benson said yes. The man is 90, I’m not sure that we should expect much. He had the foresight to bring in people to run his businesses — including his sports teams — and set up a line of succession for when he does pass. Smart moves.

Would Benson’s mental state impact potential changes coming to the Pelicans? Probably not. New Orleans’ GM Dell Demps bet big on going big in a league trending smaller, pairing Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. If that doesn’t work out, plenty of people around the league expect a house cleaning on the basketball side with the Pelicans. Benson’s mental state, whatever it may be, does not impact that.

The deposition leak came from an anonymous source (and anonymous email account, the paper verified the document before publishing). Who leaked it? It may be nearly impossible to find out, but only one side benefits from all this becoming public. And it’s not Benson.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.